Peter the Great founded the city as St. Petersburg in 1703. He had visited Western Europe and wanted to bring Western culture and technology to Russia. He made St. Petersburg his "window to the West" a showcase for his efforts to westernise Russian life. Western architects played an important role in the city's construction.
In 1712, Peter moved the nations capital from Moscow to St. Petersburg. The new capital soon became the intellectual and social centre of the Russian Empire. By 1800, over 220,000 people lived in the city.
The city played an important part in many major events in Russian history. In 1825, an unsuccessful uprising against Czar Nicholas I took place there. In 1881, a group of Russian revolutionaries assassinated Czar Alexander II in St. Petersburg. Early in 1905, troops of Czar Nicholas II killed or wounded hundreds of unarmed demonstrators in front of the Winter Palace. This Bloody Sunday slaughter led to the Revolution of 1905.
The city's name was changed to Petrograd in 1914. Riots and strikes occurred there during the Revolution of 1917, which ended czarist rule in the country. Late that year, Bolshevik (Communist) forces seized the city and formed a new government, headed by Lenin. The Bolsheviks moved the capital back to Moscow in 1918. In 1922, Russia and three other republics united to form the Soviet Union. Petrograd was renamed Leningrad upon Lenin's death in 1924.
In 1934, a Communist Party leader named Sergey Kirov was assassinated in Leningrad. His murder touched off the Great Purge, during which the government's secret police killed or imprisoned millions of people. During World War II (1939-1945), Leningrad was a major target of Germany s attack on the Soviet Union. The Germans laid siege to the city from September 1941 to January 1944. About a million citizens died during the 900-day siege, most of them from starvation. The city was badly damaged by the attack, but it did not fall.
A large number of the city's historic structures were rebuilt after World War II. The city also carried out construction projects to overcome a severe housing shortage. Large numbers of apartment buildings were constructed to meet the needs of the city's growing population. In 1966, city officials adopted a long-range program aimed at achieving a better distribution of housing, office buildings, and parks.
In August 1991, conservative Communist officials attempted to take over the Soviet national government: More than 130,000 people turned out in Leningrad to demonstrate their opposition to the coup. The coup failed within days, unleashing anti-Communist sentiments throughout the nation.
In September 1991, the city's Communist name of Leningrad was changed back to the original St. Petersburg. In December 1991, the Soviet Union was dissolved. Russia and other former Soviet republics became independent
